Reading is one of the three “Rs” foundation basic skills, the other two being writing and arithmetic. After its acquisition in early school years, reading becomes the most used ability in daily life. It is very much part of merchandise search or grocery shopping at a supermarket like picking up an apple and considering buying a kilo or just one piece. Reading is there for traffic signs, driving directions, and Internet use.
Perhaps the advent of the Internet has seen a wane in book readers. Information overload engendered a new group of bibliophiles who prefer short summaries that encapsulate ideas and themes.
At the outset, reading’s primary purpose is to get information and to understand. And then there’s the learning, discovering, and the entertaining aspects in the act of reading. For example, the book “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert is entertaining, informative, and shows how a personal search by one person can resonate with so many others. The book may not have pleased everyone but for busy virtual assistants juggling work and family, the book was and can be a nice break from the tedium of a busy day. As books do, depending on an individual’s interest. There are others like the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, short vignettes of inspiring personal stories that can be 10-15 minute reprieve from work.
Books generate curiosity and questions that are satisfied, answered by different kinds of reading. Readers come away with a feeling of having acquired something new. Reading requires time; it’s like spending many hours with a good friend. It demands attention and concentration. Someone engaged in reading will definitely have an active mind that contributes to good mental health down the road.
Imagine the horizons and the doors that open up in the world of fiction or nonfiction that someone is about to discover. Imagine that book gifted by someone, waiting patiently on a nightstand. Then imagine how it feels not to know how to read. That particular foundation “R” is very important; the author Ray Bradbury said, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”